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1 Corinthians 10:21

in 1 Corinthians 10

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.

KJV

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

This verse in 1 Corinthians 10

Commentary

16 notes on this verse

A commentator

Tertullian

De Spectaculis · Written before 220.

Nor do we dislike the temples less than the monuments: we have nothing to do with either altar, we adore neither image; we do not offer sacrifices to the gods, and we make no funeral oblations to the departed; nay, we do not partake of what is offered either in the one case or the other, for we cannot partake of God's feast and the feast of devils.

This site's exposition

You cannot drink the cup

on 1 Corinthians 10:21-22

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too states a moral impossibility, since each table gives a real fellowship. A believer can attend both feasts yet belong to one.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers5 voices

A commentator

Cosmas Indicopleustes

The Christian Topography, Book 4 · Written before 550.

proposed

And though ye allow that the universe was created in six days, yet ye find no mention of the making of a third heaven, and far less of the eight or nine which ye venture to affirm. How great is your knowledge! how great your …

A commentator

Pseudo-Clement

Recognitions (Book IV) · Written before 400.

proposed

But the ways in which this garment may be spotted are these: If any one withdraw from God the Father and Creator of all, receiving another teacher besides Christ, who alone is the faithful and true Prophet, and who has sent us twelve apostles to …

A commentator

Cyprian

Epistle IX · Written before 258.

proposed

And I wish, if it could be so without the sacrifice of our brethren's safety, that they could make good their claim to all things; I could dissemble and bear the discredit of my episcopal authority, as I always have dissembled and borne it. But it is not now the occasion for dissimulating when our brotherhood is deceived by some of you, who, while without the means of restoring salvation they desire to please, become a still greater stumbling-block to the lapsed, For that it is a very great crime which persecution has compelled to be committed, they themselves know who have committed it; since our Lord and Judge has said, "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me, him will I also deny." And again He has said, "All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies; but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall not have forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin." Also the blessed apostle has said, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils." He who withholds these words from our brethren deceives them, wretched that they are; so that they who truly repenting might satisfy God, both as the Father and as merciful, with their prayers and works, are seduced more deeply to perish; and they who might raise themselves up fall the more deeply. […]

A commentator

Cyprian

Treatise III. On the Lapsed · Written before 258.

proposed

Moreover, beloved brethren, a new kind of devastation has appeared; and, as if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been added to the heap, under the title of mercy, a deceiving mischief and a fair-seeming calamity. Contrary to the vigour of the Gospel, contrary to the law of the Lord and God, by the temerity of some, communion is relaxed to heedless persons,-a vain and false peace, dangerous to those who grant it, and likely to avail nothing to those who receive it. They do not seek for the patience necessary to health nor the true medicine derived from atonement. Penitence is driven forth from their breasts, and the memory of their very grave and extreme sin is taken away. The wounds of the dying are covered over, and the deadly blow that is planted in the deep and secret entrails is concealed by a dissimulated suffering. Returning from the altars of the devil, they draw near to the holy place of the Lord, with hands filthy and reeking with smell, still almost breathing of the plague-bearing idol-meats; and even with jaws still exhaling their crime, and reeking with the fatal contact, they intrude on the body of the Lord, although the sacred Scripture stands in their way, and cries, saying, "Every one that is clean shall eat of the flesh; and whatever soul eateth of the flesh of the saving sacrifice, which is the Lord's, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from his people." Also, the apostle testifies, and says, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils." He threatens, moreover, the stubborn and froward, and denounces them, saying, "Whosoever eateth the bread or drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on 1 Corinthians 24 · Written before 407.

proposed

Next, because he brought in the saying by way of exhortation, lest any of the grosser sort should make light of it as having license, because he said, "I would not," and, "judge ye;" he positively affirms in what follows and lays down the law, saying, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the Lord's table, and of the table of demons." And he contents himself with the mere terms, for the purpose of keeping them away.
9 more voices on this verse

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Cyprian

Epistle XXX · Written before 258.

proposed

That we are not saying this dishonestly, our former letters have proved, wherein we have declared our opinion to you with a very plain statement, both against those who had betrayed themselves as unfaithful by the unlawful presentation of wicked certificates, as if they thought that they would escape those esnaring nets of the devil; whereas, not less than if they had approached to the wicked altars.

A commentator

Ambrosiaster

COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES · Written before 384.

proposed

Anyone who drinks the cup of demons insults the cup of Christ, and anyone who eats at the table of demons revolts against the table of Christ, that is to say, the altar of the Lord, and crucifies his body again.

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on 1 Corinthians · Written before 1107.

proposed

In the form of an exhortation he said: "I do not want you to be in communion with demons." Lest this exhortation be disregarded, he now expresses the same thought in a negative form: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

To partake of this Christian feast was to have communion with Christ: to partake of the feasts made in honour of the heathen idols, and made of things sacrificed to them, was to have communion with devils. Now this was to compound contraries; it was by no means consistent. Communion with Christ, and communion with devils, could never be had at once.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He lets them yet know that though they must not eat of things sacrificed to idols as such, and out of any regard to the idol, yet they might buy such flesh in the markets, or eat it at the table of heathen acquaintances, without asking any questions; for that the heathens' abuse of them did not render the creatures of God unfit to be the food of his servants.

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord ... - This does not mean that they had no physical ability to do this, or that it was a natural impossibility; for they certainly had power to do it. But it must mean that they could not “consistently” do it. It was not fit, proper, decent. They were solemnly bound to serve and obey Christ, they had devoted themselves to him, and they could not, consistently with these obligations, join in the worship of demons.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Our only altar is the cross, our only sacrifice that of Christ once for all. The Lord's Supper stands, however, in the same relation, analogically, to Christ's sacrifice, as the Jews' sacrificial feasts did to their sacrifices (compare Mal 1:7, "altar . . . table of the Lord"), and the heathen idol feasts to their idolatrous sacrifices (Isa 65:11).

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord - It is in vain that you who frequent these idol festivals profess the religion of Christ, and commemorate his death and passion in the holy eucharist; for you can not have that fellowship with Christ which this ordinance implies, while you are partakers of the table of demons. That the Gentiles, in their sacrifices, fed on the slain beasts, and ate bread and drank wine in honor of their gods, is sufficiently clear from various accounts. See my Discourse on the Holy Eucharist, where many examples are produced. The following from Virgil, Aen. viii, verse 179-273, is proof in point: - Tum lecti juvenes certatim araeque sacerdos Viscera tosta ferunt taurorum, onerantque canistris Dona laboratae Cereris, Bacchumque ministrant. Vescitur Aeneas simul et Trojana juventus Perpetui tergo bovis et lustralibus extis. - Quare agite, O juvenes, tantarum in munere laudum, Cingite fronde comas, et pocula porgite dextris, Communemque vocate Deum, et date vina volentes. The loaves were served in canisters; the wine In bowls; the priests renewed the rites divine: Broiled entrails are their food, and beef’s continued chine Ye warlike youths, your heads with garlands crown, Fill high the goblets with a sparkling flood, And with deep draughts invoke our common god.

The words behind it

16 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • οὐNot

    ouG3756 →1664 times

  • δύνασθεyou are able

    dunastheG1410 →207 times

  • ποτήριον[the] cup

    poterionG4221 →31 times

  • κυρίουof [the] Lord

    kuriouG2962 →711 times

  • πίνεινto drink

    pineinG4095 →72 times

  • καὶand

    kaiG2532 →9120 times

  • ποτήριον[the] cup

    poterionG4221 →31 times

  • δαιμονίων·of demons;

    daimonionG1140 →61 times

  • οὐNot

    ouG3756 →1664 times

  • δύνασθεyou are able

    dunastheG1410 →207 times

  • τραπέζηςof [the] table

    trapezesG5132 →

  • κυρίουof [the] Lord

    kuriouG2962 →711 times

  • μετέχεινto partake

    metecheinG3348 →8 times

  • καὶand

    kaiG2532 →9120 times

  • τραπέζηςof [the] table

    trapezesG5132 →

  • δαιμονίων.of demons.

    daimonionG1140 →61 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Matthew 6:24

    No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and…

    it leads to

    • Joshua 24:15

      But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 John 2:15–16

      Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

    • Luke 16:13

      No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and…

    • James 4:4

      You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

    • 1 Timothy 6:9–10

      Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

  • Through

    1 Kings 18:21

    Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did…

    it leads to

    • Matthew 6:24

      No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and…

    • 1 Corinthians 10:21–22

      You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

    • 2 Corinthians 6:14–16

      Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Corinthians

The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495 to 1498. Public domain.
The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495 to 1498. Public domain.
This page draws on 15 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 4; Cyprian, Epistle IX; Cyprian, Treatise III. On the Lapsed; Cyprian, Epistle XXX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 24; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions (Book IV); Tertullian, De Spectaculis and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.